JK Rowling Writes Piece on U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown for Time Magazine

May 01, 2009

Posted by: SueTLC

J.K. Rowling

Time Magazine has released their annual list of the 100 Most Influential people in the world. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has written a piece about the number two man on the list, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown. A long time friend of the Prime Minister, readers will recall J.K. Rowling was a recent guest at 10 Downing Street for a dinner held by Gordon and Sarah Brown for the spouses of the members of the G20 world economic summit that included Michelle Obama, wife of US President Barack Obama. JKR writes of the current Prime Minister:

Back in the mid-1990s, when he was new labour’s brooding, intellectual
heavyweight, I was a lone parent struggling to get by. He said he was
not interested in stigmatizing the poor but in finding solutions for
their predicament. I was tired of hearing government ministers lambaste
the likes of me as irresponsible scroungers. I wanted Gordon Brown in
charge.

He went on to become one of the longest-serving Chancellors of the
Exchequer that Britain has ever seen. While our economy grew strongly,
he could have stood back and done nothing; on the contrary, he brought
in and continually drove up the minimum wage, and 600,000 children and
a million pensioners were raised out of poverty. Brown believed the
wealthy would always be able to look after themselves; it was people at
the other end of the economic scale that government ought to be helping.


When capitalism shuddered on its foundations last year, Brownite words
like responsibility and morality started issuing from the unlikeliest
politicians. Global financial regulation, something Brown had advocated
long before last September, shot to the top of the political agenda.
Now Prime Minister, Brown took a lead among European leaders in setting
a course for economic recovery. He hosted the most important meeting of
the world’s major economies in years. In doing so, the British press
said, he had become “Chancellor to the world.”


The son of a Presbyterian minister, with a formidable intellect and a
work ethic to shame a nest of ants, the 58-year-old Brown is frequently
dubbed “dour.” I know him as affable, funny and gregarious, a great
listener, a kind and loyal friend. These are strange and turbulent
times, but issues of fairness, equality and protection of the poor have
never been more important. I still want Gordon Brown in charge.





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.